Monthly Archives: November 2010

A selection of hundreds of thousands of documents – most of them classified – were released yesterday by the New York Times and several other newspapers around the world having been provided to them several weeks ago by Wikileaks.com.

Intra-party fights for political spoils are one of the dark sides of legislative politics.

These battles are divisive and unproductive. They destroy party morale, political efficacy and even lifelong friendships. Fortunately, the incoming Republican House majority kept most of these internal squabbles to a minimum when it came to selecting their new leadership team.

This is a rewrite of the Thanksgiving MULLINGS first published in 2002.

Please take a moment on Thanksgiving to say a Prayer of Thanks for those brave Americans in uniform, and also for the civilians, who are serving in far off places, away from their families, protecting us, while projecting America’s values as we enjoy our Thanksgiving dinners safe from fear, and from want; and exercise our freedoms of worship and of speech.

The administration’s Afghanistan war policy seems to be settling into a dismal combination of confusion and cynicism. Before the November elections, the administration was adamant that the troops would start coming home by July 2011. That, it is presumed, was to keep the president’s liberals calm.

If you live in Washington, DC and follow the local Major League Baseball team – the Nationals – you know a little something about slumps.

You know how you can deny that one of their players is heading into one; you can deny he’s in the midst of one; and then you celebrate when he comes out the other side – in spite of the previous denials.

President Obama is in a real, hit-into-a-double-play-with-no-one-on-base slump.

On the eve of St. Patrick’s Day in 1978, the New York Times reported that the House approved by legislation, which established the official policy of the United States that the unemployment rate should be 4%. “The bill authorizes the use of fiscal and monetary policy, public service jobs, job training and counseling and all other means to achieve full employment…The legislation was supported by a coalition of labor, civil right, liberal, religious and women’s groups and was backed by President Carter.” Amendments offered by Republicans to require a balanced budget and achieve an inflation goal of 3% were rejected, and most GOPers voted against final passage of the bill, calling it an empty promise.

Do you ever get the strange feeling that someone might be getting a better deal under the same federal tax code than you are?

Well, they are…millions of your fellow Americans are. To the tune of close to $1 trillion in saved tax payments per year. Each year. And you keep paying all of your taxes like a great American without even knowing why.

Delta Airlines’ Sky Magazine had a 26-page spread last month on the Midwest’s new tourist hotspot, North Dakota . It featured Governor– and now U.S. Senator-elect– John Hoeven, who gets much of the credit for making North Dakota one of the most prosperous states in the country.

The Washington Examiner on Nov. 8th, joined the lobbying campaign to prevent Michigan Congressman Fred Upton from becoming the new Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Continue reading →

Last weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tried his hand at dissecting Republican foreign policy attitudes. I commend the senator for trying to come to grips with this vital question, which is getting so little, if any, national discussion. As foreign events grow ever more threatening, the view of the now both culturally and congressionally dominant party – the GOP – becomes central to the range of political options President Obama has available to him.

Ever wonder if all of the money and energy that goes into political fights over the US corporate income tax is really ‘worth it’ or is all this argument over corporate taxes just a huge waste of time and a ‘political pinata’?